


ME3 ending analysis: the end of a trilogy

by tersa (alix)



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-15
Updated: 2012-03-14
Packaged: 2017-11-01 23:19:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 7,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/362382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alix/pseuds/tersa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There have been a lot of theories going around the internet since Mass Effect 3 dropped regarding the meaning of the ending.</p><p>I got a wild hair up my butt to look at the endings again inspired by these theories and what Bioware has been cruelly teasing us with since the game dropped from a perspective of a literary analysis of the entire series as one contiguous narrative AND an RPG game.</p><p>Needless to say, there are massive end game spoilers for the entire trilogy included here.</p><p>ETA1 Ch 12: edited to have an additional theory posted and a clarification</p><p>(15-Mar)<br/>ETA2 Ch 12: updated to note another observation about the possible endings<br/>ETA3 Ch 12:A couple of tweets added to the end that suggest additional support for my assertion<br/>ETA4 Ch 5: Added in a note relating to the 'Redemption' comic<br/>ETA5 Ch 13: Added info to the Epilogue undermining my assertion.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Preface

I've been reading everyone's posts and comments rather intensively on the [masseffect livejournal community](http://masseffect.livejournal.com/) since finishing the game over the weekend, plus all the theories being posted from the BSN and other sources and the 'trolling' comments from the Bioware employees. This morning while dragging around getting ready for work half-zombie (or is that husk?) these all coalesced into an idea that, the more I thought of it, the more it hung together.

...only to come in and discover someone had [sniped my idea with possible support behind them](http://masseffect.livejournal.com/1348952.html?thread=37298776#t37298776) lol (there are end game spoilers at that link. In case you were wondering).

What follows is what I came up with. It's not really 'new' for anyone whose been reading the theories, some of the stuff I'm saying is drawn from those, some are things I've previously mentioned in comments of my own, but what I _haven't_ seen is anyone taking a look at the ending in the context of the story _as a whole_ , and that's what I'm going to try to do.

This thing is brutally long, so if you finish all the way to the end and don't glaze over from the wall of text, you'll get a cookie. Seriously.

* * *

I'm going to start out by my conclusion: I think that screenshot posted by [ kitsunebaba](http://kitsunebaba.livejournal.com/)'s [post](http://masseffect.livejournal.com/1348952.html) this morning is probably correct--we're going to get more game that will pick up after the "end" of what we got in ME3 so far.

The following is NOT an attempt to defend Bioware's decision, if that's the case, so please don't jump all over me--if they are doing what I think they're doing, I think it's a kind of shitty way to treat fans, especially with the cryptic remarks on Twitter and wherever else about how we should be patient and wait and it'll be awesome.

It's simply an attempt to show why I think it will come.


	2. It's not the destination, it's the journey

Everyone knows this, but I think I need to begin by stating the obvious: Mass Effect 3 is not just a standalone game, but the final chapter in a trilogy. Bioware's been very clear about that. And while I think a lot of people have been focusing on the idea of "choice matters" as the primary takeaway from the trilogy concept, another thing that I think needs to be looked at is that they were telling a story over three games--so there are story elements that need to be looked at from all three games when analyzing the ending, and not just what happened in ME3.

Part of why I'm doing this is that although at the moment I don't trust Bioware at the moment or Casey Hudson or Mike Gamble or any of the other members of the ME team who are more marketing and PR, I have an irrational trust in the writers. I've talked, albeit briefly, with Patrick Weekes, and he seems like someone worthy of trust and, perhaps more significantly, [he noted that he and Mac Walters have worked on all three games](http://masseffect.livejournal.com/1300138.html?thread=36064426#t36064426). That indicates there is a level of continuity from at least one writer I'm inclined to believe knows what he's doing. (Full disclosure: And I'm not saying this just because he might read this, although I am aware there's a slim chance he might.)

The story as was set out in ME1 seemed rather straight forward: every 50,000 years, a group of sentient synthetics come in and wipe out all advanced organics. We've all seen stories like this before--we pretty much figured out very early on that that's what the end goal was going to be.

I don't think that's changed any even with the 'end' of ME3 presented the way it was. I think it really is supposed to be that simple.

When the concept of the 'Prothean weapon' was introdued in ME3, I found it interesting, but my initial reaction was that this was a 'Deathly Hallows'-like last minute thing (for those familiar with the Harry Potter books, which I'm guessing is 'many of you') and was fully prepared to roll my eyes at what felt, at least at that first moment, like a deus ex machina (haha, pun :P) resolution to the story line, but as the story unfolded, I found that wasn't how I took it.

There are several key bits of information relevant to the 'weapon':  
\- The information about the weapon requiring a Catalyst came out long before it was dubbed the Crucible. The Catalyst was language, or interpretation of language, that came out of the plans. The Crucible was the name the project was given by the Alliance when they started to build it. The name may have been inspired by the concept of the Catalyst, rather than significant in and of itself.

So, taking a look _specifically_ at the word 'Catalyst' (which I know one of the indoctrination/dream theorists already did), dictionary.com defines it as:

> _3\. a person or thing that precipitates an event or change_

> _2\. something that causes activity between two or more persons or forces **without itself being affected**._

(emphasis mine)

I have a science background; I was very good at chemistry. When I first heard the word 'Catalyst' in the game, this was the first thing I thought of. And as someone who also analyzes stories to try to predict where they're going, the first thought _I_ thought of was: Shepard is the Catalyst. That's going to be the big reveal.

I know that's not what the 'end' says, but bear with me.

As mentioned above, 'Crucible' came later. I suspect the scientists working on the project, like me, saw the word 'catalyst' and named it based on something related. In chemistry, a crucible is defined as: _"a container of metal or refractory material employed for heating substances to high temperatures."_ But again, as someone analyzing this for story, I think the name is an Easter egg put in there by the writers for the word's alternate definition:

> _"a severe, searching test or trial."_

So, to me, ME3, the story, the game, was Shepard's journey as this agency of change through the severe, searching test, but more importantly to all of us and where I think Bioware may be going with it-- _without being changed_. 


	3. The Prothean weapon, the plans, its design, its origins, and how it may tie in with the Reapers

I want to take a step back to explore the whole idea of the Prothean weapon.

I think it's clear, by the effect the Crucible actually realizes, that it is not a weapon. It is the device which allows for the scenario we see at the end.

Throughout the game, bits of information about the plans themselves are dropped.  
\- It was assumed, at first, that it was Prothean in origin, but then it's revealed that these were plans literally passed down through the generations, through the cycles, as Javik refers to the 50,000 year epochs between Reaper visits, with each cycle adding to the information and the plans, such as the Citadel becoming a component of it.

\- Hackett mentions at least a couple of times (and any time information is dropped twice, I sit up and take notice because I think it's the game writers trying to make a point about something, a clue they want us to pick up) that the plans, once analyzed, are simple to read. As if every previous cycle-generation wanted to make sure the next would be able to understand them to implement them.

But given a comment Javik noted immediately after his recruitment, I don't think this was something the Protheans themselves would have thought of. "This cycle is still stuck in primitive modes of communication." (paraphrase) _Their_ method of communication--the beacons, the memory shard--were incomprehensible to anyone but Shepard. There's nothing to suggest that earlier races would not have had their own unique methods of communication that later cycles wouldn't be able to interpret, either.

This would suggest that there is another power at work here, one that transcends the limitations of each cycles' advanced races.

The Reapers.

Sovereign reveals to Shepard that the Mass Relays, the Citadel, are Reaper inventions designed to guide _how_ every race advanced enough to find its way to it develops. By dangling the shiny toy of technology beyond what the race itself is capable of devising on their own, they can then predict with great accuracy how that race's technology will proceed from there.

Until the discovery of the existence of the Reapers in ME1, everyone assumed that all this technology was the Protheans. We know now that's a lie, and that all advanced plans stem from the Reapers.

I think the plans for the 'Prothean weapon' do as well, and that what each cycle contributes is more information learned about the technology based on the cycle before.

In the last cycle, the Protheans had advanced enough on the information/knowledge/backs of the cycle before to discover the Keepers' roles in perpetuating the cycle and more importantly how to take them out of the equation. They figured out, perhaps for the first time, how to create a mass relay, the one on Ilos.

And, as I was writing that, I suddenly realized it may be that part of the Reapers' plan is to force the advanced races of each successive cycles towards a greater and greater level of understanding and grasp of the technology to a point which results in what we have at the end: the first organic to 'prove' they are advanced enough to successfully execute the 'Prothean weapon' plans to make it to the heart of the Citadel.


	4. Interstitial

I am, at this point, rather firmly in the camp that the end bit is, as others have said, Shepard's "Indoctrination" moment.

But I believe that the last twenty minutes are not 'The End' of the story, but left as a cliffhanger at the denouement of this three game story.

What I haven't seen (and maybe it's because I've been glazing over the wall of text because so many of those have come as part of "it's a dream" theories as well) is _how_ /why.

And it's ignored most of the plot points that came out of ME2 and TIM's involvement. Because this is long and complicated, I'm going to break it down into successive sections to hopefully make it easier to read.


	5. Shepard as the catalyst, and why it was so damned important s/he be resurrected

One of the themes that got hammered at through most of ME2 was the concept of humanity's "genetic diversity". I still don't quite understand _why_ that's important, but what _makes_ the point important is this: early on, way back on Freedom's Progress, either Jacob or Miranda comments that the Collectors have always seemed interested in gathering specimens with a lot of genetic diversity, and no one could ever figure out why. And we know now that the Collectors were the husks made from the Protheans working for the Reapers. Which means the Reapers have an interest in identfying species with genetic diversity.

Again, 'why' is a question I don't think has been answered, and perhaps never will, but for their own reasons, the Reapers have identified humanity as special, some aspect of this genetic diversity they've been searching for. The creation of the Human Reaper larvae was, I believe, as the conclusion of this search, and it may be as the 'Catalyst'-child said, that they preserve some organics to become new Reapers. But I think the _other_ side of it is that the race(s) chosen for this "honor" are also identified as the race from which each generation's 'catalyst' is selected.

And as I previously stated, I believe Shepard is the catalyst.

Why Shepard, other than the obvious fact that s/he is the hero of the game ;), I'm also not sure of, but I think it happened all the way back in ME1. Maybe it's because Shepard is the only one to have successfully interfaced with a Prothean beacon and lived. Maybe it's because s/he was the spearhead, the identified leader of the force that went up against Saren and Sovereign. Maybe it was through Shepard's interaction with Sovereign, both directly on Virmire and indirectly through the final confrontation with the Sovereign-controlled-Saren. However it was, Sovereign (and therefore the Reapers) tagged Shepard with the sparkly 'special' brand as the Chosen One, and the rest of the trilogy began.

Which brings us to ME2. The very first scene we get is of Miranda and TIM talking about Shepard, his/her accomplishments of ME1, and "s/he's a hero; a bloody icon". And TIM's final words are something like, "then let's make sure s/he stays [alive]." 

But then the Collectors go and kill him/her. Oops.

Maybe that was accidental. Maybe it was purposeful. Because the end result is that Cerberus--and TIM--get control of Shepard's remains. TIM then proceeds to pour _billions_ of credits into resurrecting him/her "exactly the way s/he was", and is adamant with Miranda to not include a control chip in him/her. It is important to TIM that Shepard have free will, despite all superficial evidence which would suggest TIM _wouldn't_. Wouldn't it be easier for him if Shepard just went along with everything he wanted? Not to have to convince or persuade him/her?

_Why?_

Because I think the Reapers wanted Shepard to have free will. To have the power of _choice_.

And TIM is acting under the Reapers orders/influence.

(ETA4): I recalled much later, obviously since this is another edit, one possible question raised by the comic 'Redemption' is that it was not just Cerberus chasing after Shepard's remains, but also the Collectors working through the Shadow Broker.

If, as I postulate (and expand on in the next section), TIM is Indoctrinated, then it would seem like the Reapers have agents working against one another for the same end goal--gaining possession of Shepard's remains--which may be a waste of effort.

On the other hand, maybe given the way their influence with TIM works, it was more effective to let him do his thing and go after Shepard's remains, not caring about effort waste as long as one of those two groups got it, because it's still a win/win situation for the Reapers.

I don't have a good explanation for that as yet.


	6. The Illusive Man, sleeper agent of the Reapers

I know it's been discussed before and I'm very late to the fandom, but I don't know if I've ever seen it accepted as Fact that TIM is Indoctrinated. Obviously, that conclusion is drawn at the end of ME3, but I think it happened much earlier than that.

Thirty years earlier, in fact.

"Evolution" is the only one of the ME alt-media that I've read, and I specifically did so because the protagonist of the series is TIM. I'm sure many of you are familiar with it (if you haven't read it directly), but for those who haven't, it's a four issue series with a story of a Reaper artifact discovered on Shanxi (yes, the same Shanxi Ashley's grandfather 'lost' to the Turians during the First Contact War) by the turians, taken back to Palavan, where it's "servants" (read: husks, although they are not called as such) work with General Desolas--Saren's brother--to "evolve" turians to what Desolas believes is the next stage in their development as a race. It's pretty clear reading between the lines and reading the story (not to mention the pictures revealed of the 'evolved' turians) that Desolas is Indoctrinated and the "evolution" he speaks of is turning them into husks (or what we now know are Marauders).

But one of the things that happens in it is that one of TIM's friends, Ben Hislop, also touches this Reaper artifact and becomes a husk as well, and TIM (Jack Harper), in trying to save Ben, touches him while Ben is in contact with the artifact...

...and that's when he gets the weird glowy blue eyes he has. Just like a husks, no?

The comic then goes on to provide further, blatant evidence that Jack has been permanently altered by this experience, beyond his eyes: he can 'speak' the language the husks use amongst themselves. The Reapers can communicate with him from a distance; there's a moment when he and his companion, Eva Core (aside: !!!!!, holy shit, I'd completely forgotten that was her name until I was researching stuff on the wiki), are on Ilium where he mentions being able to 'hear' the artifact even though it is on Palaven.

It never comes out and says he's Indoctrinated, and he's obviously not a husk as we accept them to be, so I always had at least a grain of doubt in my certainty that he was.

The first time I replayed ME1 since reading "Evolution", this past January, a line Vigil says on Ilos suddenly leapt out at me. I'm paraphrasing again, but it says: "the Reapers are cunning. The Reapers are patient. They have sleeper agents working for years for them before their arrival."

But now, with the knowledge we have from his actions in ME3, I think it's clear TIM was one of those sleeper agents.


	7. How Shepard's resurrection paved the way to his/her Indoctrination

Before looking at the events of ME2, three pieces of information revealed in ME3 need to be mentioned:

  1. **Dr. Chakwas's scan of Shepard at the very beginning, provided you bring her on the ship.** I haven't yet played a scenario out where you _don't_ bring her on the ship, but have played this twice with her returning to the Normandy and taking the Paragon and Renegade dialogue options to her request to examine Shepard. Neither option gives you the choice to deny the request, so this is a plot rail moment. _Relevance:_ This is a reminder to returning players or a fact drop for new players that Shepard is embedded with Reaper tech. 
  2. **Shepard is under a lot of stress** There is an interaction with Joker you can have midway through Act II, where he, obviously stressed out himself, gets snippy with Shepard and reveals that _Anderson_ has asked Joker to take care of Shepard. There is a bit of sleight of hand here, as he goes on to express frustration about how he's supposed to do that, but the key bit of information is almost a throwaway line: that EDI has told Joker, through monitoring of Shepard's suit, that s/he is showing extremely high levels of stress. For those not steeped in biological sciences or famliar with the physiological symptoms of stress, this includes: " _the body responds by stimulating the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. The reaction of these systems causes a number of physical changes that have both short and long term effects on the body._ " [[Source](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_%28physiology%29)] And the effect on the endocrine system is a complicated biochemical reaction involving multiples steps and multiple chemicals and I won't bore you with the specifics and Wikipedia sadly does not present it in one neat quotable statement, but I fell on that sword for you to parse through the links (yay, biological science background to understand this stuff) to verify with certainty that adrenaline (epinephrine) is one of the physiological consequences. _Relevance:_ Shepard has a lot of adrenaline going through his/her system. 
  3. **Henry Lawson's assertion that the 'Reaper nanides' seem to be facilitated into integrating with his test subjects through delivery by adrenaline** This is heard in one of the logs you can click on in the Sanctuary lab. _Relevance:_ Adrenaline facilitates Indoctrination.




	8. Looking at the events of ME2 in light of Shepard's Indoctrination beginning and TIM's role as a sleeper agent

One of the things I remember reading about in the lead-up to ME3 were a few complaints in the game media about how ME2 made no sense, was a letdown from ME1, was muddled, the story and ending were dumb, etc, and how the hope was that ME3 would 'get back to what made the series good in the first place'.

When I was reading the article, I agreed that, taken as a standalone game, it was kind of "where did this come from?"

But looking at it again in context of the entire trilogy and what we know of ME3, those complaints could stem, in part, from "middle movie syndrome"--it really isn't entirely able to be judged on its own, but as its function as a bridge between the beginning and the end.

 _IF_ TIM is Indocrinated, then it means every event of ME2 was something the Reapers wanted to happen: Shepard's resurrection, driving a wedge between Shepard and the Virmire Survivor, the revelation that the Collectors were the Protheans, exposure to additional Reaper technology while retrieving the IFF, the confrontation with the Human Reaper larvae, and a second exposure to Reaper tech by Object Rho in Arrival--the main act points of the game.

ME2 starts out with one important point: Shepard has now been infected by Reaper tech.

S/he is then subjected to a series of events, all orchestrated by TIM/the Reapers, that (a) puts incredible stress on him/her, (b) tests Shepard at every turn through direct confrontation with Harbinger, and (c) serves to deliver information to Shepard about the Reapers' plans. This has the purpose of:

(a) Start the process of Indoctrination, given the explanation above  
(b) If Shepard can survive, s/he can be considered a worthy candidate to be the catalyst  
(c) Reveals information to Shepard, the catalyst, so that when the time comes, s/he can make an informed decision

The game was designed so that the Human Reaper larvae would always be destroyed. Shepard should/would at that point think that humans becoming or joining the Reapers is anathemae.

But, I just realized it in typing this up: isn't it interesting that the decision Shepard makes is what to do with the Collector Base at that point is the primary branch path in determining the ME3 endings?

Could it be that agreeing with TIM at that point is the first signpost that Shepard is on the path towards Indoctrination?

I don't know the answer to that. But I find it interesting that Bioware thinks it's Significant.


	9. ME3: The journey, the airduct child, and the significance of the dreams

By the time we get to ME3, Shepard is well on the path to being Indoctrinated. As Bioware and the voice actors (an interview with Jennifer Hale stands out at this) mention that Shepard is starting to be worn down by the fight, tired. The events of ME3 only continue the process started in ME2, with more stress--starting with the invasion of Earth--the clock is nearing midnight pressure to frantically knit together a coalition of warring races to try to defend themselves from extinction: it's taking its toll, and bringing Shepard to the tipping point.

And then there is the child.

To be quite honest, I haven't yet decided what to believe about it. I heard the theories before the game came out that they thought it existed solely in Shepard's head, and now with the end as it was presented when it identified itself as the Catalyst, it's easy to believe that it was this godlike synthetic being dictating the actions of the Reapers and, if so, my argument collapses.

But then I cycled back to my initial reaction: Shepard is the Catalyst.

The child at the very beginning is real enough, but every time we see that child after he is blown up on the shuttle is in Shepard's dreams (three times) and as the glowy energy being on the Citadel. Maybe the original child was real, and what we see later is simply the form Shepard's subconscious puts to a concept that his/her brain can't otherwise conceptualize.

Or maybe the child _is_ imaginary even then, because I want to find significance in what he says to Shepard, there in the airduct:

"Everyone is dying."

"You can't help me."

When looked at knowing what we find out at the end, this could be the Catalyst-child entity basically stating fact: there is nothing you can do to save the advanced races, but then that makes the second statement very curious: why couldn't Shepard help it?

 _IF_ the Reapers have identified Shepard as the Chosen One and have been guiding his/her development specifically at the microscopic level just as they guide the advanced races in a macroscopic scale, maybe that statement was made as a goad. A dare: 'Prove me wrong'.

That child comes to influence Shepard throughout the rest of the game, through the dreams.

Looking at the dreams themselves, what are they? Shepard, trapped in a dark, amorphous, threatening forest. At first, the dream is simply Shepard chasing the child, which frequently is seen only in the distance as something lighter than the surroundings (the light at the end of the darkness? There's a thought). In the second dream, Shepard is now beginning to chase the child through strange, dark, humanoid silhouettes [not all that unlike those depicted in the negative space in the bottom edges of the dragon's wings in the DA2 logo](http://na.llnet.bioware.cdn.ea.com/u/f/eagames/bioware/dragonage2/assets/layout/header-09.png). In all of them, Shepard hears the voices of his/her fallen squadmates: the Virmire Sacrifice to begin with, then Thane and any others that die along the way.

Then there is the interpretation of the chase: in all of the dreams, Shepard is chasing the child. Shepard is seeking something. Shepard is running towards something. If your preference is that the Catalyst-child is an entity separate from Shepard, this could be interpreted as Shepard's inexorable journey to confrontation with the Catalyst-child on the Citadel; if Shepard is the catalyst, this could be Shepard's journey into evolving into the Catalyst, represented in part by Shepard being _with_ the child in the third dream. And every dream ends with the child--or the child and Shepard--going up in flames. This could be destruction. But it could also be purification. Or change. Or going back to the definition of 'catalyst' and 'crucible': transformation. Or phoenix imagery

My personal pet theory is that the child here is a manifestation of the will the Reapers as a group exert on individuals in the thrall of Indoctrination, interpeted by Shepard's subconscious, and that they are continuing to drive Shepard to the place they want him/her to be.


	10. Shepard's confrontation with the Prothean VI at Cronos Station

I would be remiss if I didn't mention this, but I don't know, yet, how it works in with my theory. So I put it in here as a notice that no, I haven't forgotten it.

My premise is that Shepard has been in the process of Indoctrination since all the way back at the beginning of ME2. But the one thing I can't determine is at what point it would occur. Or did occur.

The Prothean VI (who I think is Victory, although that's definitely the name of the VI Javik was talking to in the flashback sequences in From Ashes", so I may be wrong about that) on Cronos Station mentions, I think, that it, like Vigil on Ilos, had failsafes put in place so as not to reveal its information to an Indoctrinated entity. Vigil specifically says when encountering Shepard "I do not detect the taint of Indoctrination on you, like the one who passed just before you."

So the Protheans, at least, devised a method to detect this, something the "less advanced" members of this cycle (as Javik likes to rub it in) have not.

My memory of that moment is that the Prothean VI at Cronos Station had determined Shepard not to be Indoctrinated, but, if that's the case, how does TIM (who I think pretty clearly _is_ ) get it?

It may be that the information was revealed through the intermediary of Kai Leng--it's not clear whether he's Indoctrinated or not, and he's at the station when you get there--or as [kremlindusk](http://kremlindusk.livejournal.com) mentioned in a [comment today](http://masseffect.livejournal.com/1325398.html?thread=37390422#t37390422) to one of mine: _"I swear to god (going by memory) that the VI in TIM's lair said basically something like, "security mechanisms over-ridden; I will give you the information you request." [...] This would explain how TIM got the information, and the VI would also give Shepard the information whether s/he was indoctrinated or not."_

So it may be that Shepard isn't fully detectable as Indoctrinated yet--and that moment comes later--or that the Prothean VI is broken and Shepard is well and truly Indoctrinated at that point, and doesn't know it. But as Saren said way back in ME1: the less you fight what the Reapers want, the more control over yourself you have. And my posit is the Reapers want Shepard to be doing exactly what s/he is doing, and to continue to have free will. For now.


	11. Which brings us to the current ME3 ending, the mindfuck, and the curious case of the flip-flopping Paragon/Renegade paths

Finally, we get to the end.

I want to put off, for the moment, the discussion of _whether_ it is a dream, a vision, a hallucination, or the greatest acid trip in all history. To be honest, I don't know of it is, or at what point it started. It is not _entirely_ relevant to my essay.

Where I want to pick up is the confrontation with TIM and Anderson.

There's still a lot about that scene I don't understand and can't explain: both Anderson and Shepard physically behave as if TIM is pulling the puppet strings. I don't know how that can happen with both of them--my original sense of it is that in Shepard's case, it's through TIM's limited control over Reaper tech that he's said he's been striving for all game. How that would apply to Anderson is a mystery--it could be that because he's been on Earth all this time, surrounded by Reapers, he is also on his way to being Indoctrinated, it could be some weird juju magic, or it could be part of the dream/vision/hallucination/acid trip, where in that case, everything going on are elements of Shepard's subconscious and therefore 'normal' rules don't apply.

But the primary thing that I think is important to the story are the arguments they make: in that scene, they are the Angel and the Devil on Shepard's shoulders foreshadowing the decision s/he is about to have to make.

Let's assume, for a moment, that it is a dream, because it allows me to use the language of dreams to explain them. Anderson has, throughout the games, been cast in a Paragon light. He's a nice man. He tends towards the actions identfied in our dialogue trees as the Paragon path. TIM, on the other hand, is the Renegade. Going along and agreeing with TIM throughout most of ME2 were Renegade decisions. Keeping the Collector Base--something TIM desperately wants--is the Renegade path.

And in this moment, Anderson is arguing for destroying the Reapers and TIM for controlling them.

The confrontation resolves, and I haven't seen or heard every permutation of that as yet, so I can't factor that in. The only ending to this scene I'm aware of at the moment is TIM dies, either by his own hand or by Shepard's, and Anderson may or may not survive past him to have a dying conversation with Shepard.

But the next relevant thing that happens is that Shepard 'ascends' (and if we want to get all mystical wom-wom about it, we could say 'ascends to a higher state of consciousness') and becomes what the godlike-child being that identifies itself as the Catalyst claims is the first organic to reach it.

Again, I can't be certain whether the Catalyst-child is, in fact, a separate entity or not. It could very well, again, if this _is_ a dream or vision, simply be a manifestation of Shepard's subconscious, an 'other' way of dealing with this destiny Shepard has been traveling towards since Eden Prime (and oh, wow, cripes, isn't it weird that 'destiny' is the word Garrus uses in his farewell speech to Shepard? "This is your destiny.") The fact that it's been [teased out that Jennifer Hale and Mark Meer's voices are underlying the child actor's voice](http://pedpickle.tumblr.com/post/19239500329/lets-all-just-take-the-time-to-appreciate-the) in the end would seem to support this.

But it's at this moment that Shepard becomes this cycle's Catalyst--this is the culmination of all the testing of Shepard's mettle, his/her beliefs, his/her resolve, coming out the other side of the crucible--to be the agent of change: his/her next decision will decide the fate of the Galaxy.

It is also when something that's been bugging me ever since I realized it happened here: the Control and Destroy options flipped on the Paragon/Renegade axis. Suddenly, Control was being presented as 'Paragon' blue and Destroy as 'Renegade' red.

Not a new theory, but re-stating it: this is the Indoctrination moment. If you blindly choose based on whether your character is a Paragon or a Renegade, then you're going against everything you espoused most of the game.

I think they did this deliberately, not just to convey the idea that Shepard is on the cusp of being Indoctrinated, but also because it should force the player to _really think_ about the decision being made. They made it deliberately confusing for the player, because it's supposed to represent Shepard's confusion at that moment.

Suddenly, everything we've been striving for since Day One, since Sovereign hung over the Eden Prime spaceport, is turned on its head. Destroying the Reapers is presented as the 'evil' choice, fraught with repercussions that may make a Paragon pause--destruction of the geth (if they're still around), and of EDI, who has been a squadmate. Control of the Reapers is Paragon, because it will result in less impact on everything: the geth will survive, EDI will survive, and there will be no change to the organics.

Then there is Synthesis which, curiously, only becomes an option with an EMS>2800 (easily achievable in a thorough but not completist single-player game). The one which joins organic and synthetic life into a new, hybridized life...not that far off from what the Reapers are now.

People have complained (and, rightly so at the moment) that these three options are not really options, it's just "what color do you want your explosions to be?"

But if, _IF_ , you can bear with me for the rest of this essay and suspend your disbelief that Bioware wasn't lying to us, and that the endings are distinct, and _choices matter_ , then maybe some sense can be made out of it.


	12. Our choices matter, and why the fact that this is an RPG is important to consider

As someone previously stated, so again, nothing new: _if_ you believe the Catalyst-child and the long-winded explanation it gives as to the purpose of the Reapers, then the Control and Synthesis options would be in their best interest.

But if you buy into the idea of the Crucible, and Shepard being in it, as a test, then here it is. Can Shepard throw off the confusion and persuasiveness of the Reapers--the Catalyst-child's words--and stick to the path that s/he has been on: destruction of the Reapers? The "ruthless calculus" Garrus refers to in a conversation my Shepard, at least, had with him in discussing his advice to Primarch Victus to withdraw the turian fleet from the defense of Palaven in favor of protecting the Crucible?

If looked at through a light of the Reapers being the origin of the plans for the Crucible object, then they _want_ an organic to reach this point. And if they've specifically targeted Shepard as the organic to reach this point, then they _want_ Shepard to choose the fate of the galaxy.

\-----

But before I continue along that path, I need to side-step and ask a question:

_Where's the boss fight?_

I don't think that most people reading this would be new to the RPG genre, and therefore are familiar with how they work. As players, we have certain expectations where RPGs are concerned, especially as to how RPGs _end_. And in all the conversations I've seen about the ending, I don't think anyone has mentioned the fact that we _didn't_ get a boss fight.

The usual pattern (held over from JRPGs) seems to be:

  1. Fight the Big Boss, get tooled/fail to beat him 
  2. Fight the big Boss, defeat him. 
  3. Big Boss is NOT QUITE DEAD YET, and you have to fight him again.



Mass Effect has, in at least one way, strayed from the classic 'Boss Fight' ending a little with the Saren fight in ME1. That game was utterly fascinating to me because it gave players the option to skip #2 entirely (if you Paragoned or Renegaded him into killing himself), and when going into #3 (regardless of the outcome of #2), had the squadmate make a point of shooting Saren in the head TO MAKE SURE HE WAS DEAD (seriously, I cheered--a lot), before he came back controlled by Sovereign.

In ME2, you only got #2 and #3, but that was okay, it still fit the genre.

When I got to the end to the end of ME3, I realized not long afterwards...there was no final Big Boss fight. Puzzled, I thought back on it: the last fight that fit the typical RPG fight mode was holding off the waves of husks while defending the missile trucks that were taking down/driving off the Reaper guarding the transport beam up to the Citadel. But that didn't have the same _oomph_ of being a real boss fight. The last classic boss fight of the game was Kai Leng...but I don't think anyone could argue that would be a satisfying final boss fight.

And although I absolutely adored the final confrontation with TIM because it resolved that storyline, he's also not The Boss.

\-----

If looked at from the perspective of storytelling and an RPG, it feels unfinished. All those accusations are exactly right. For whatever reason, this game feels like it was _designed_ to end on the cliffhanger we were presented.

This is why I think the game isn't actually done. This is why I think the announcement of this ["The Truth" DLC](http://masseffect.livejournal.com/1348952.html?thread=37298776#t37298776) mentioned in the link way back at the beginning may have some merit. With such a DLC, they can show us the consequences of our Shepards' decisions. They can possibly present a Grand Sweeping Final Boss Fight (although what the hell that could be, I can't even conceptualize). It can explain away the WTFery of what we all saw with the Normandy escape.

A few additional strands of information factor into this:  
\- As mentioned above, the statement that there are six distinct endings. If you look at[the way the endings break down](http://www.ign.com/wikis/mass-effect-3/Endings), it's first along the lines of 'Was the Collector Base saved or destroyed?'...but _currently_ , there seems to be little distinction between these two in terms of the EMS levels and results (the only difference I found may be wording: at the 1,750 level, it seems to indicate that destroying the Reapers will destroy earth if the Base is saved, while if the Base is destroyed, you can control the Reapers but Earth is destroyed. But what it doesn't say is if choosing the opposite that will save Earth in those conditions.)

So what we've been presented with here--so far--is only three endings. We haven't had our six yet.

\- The 'trolls' by the Bioware employees on Twitter and other media venues hinting that the fanbase should be patient, that they have plans in store.

\- More specifically, [this](http://pics.livejournal.com/rachelskywalker/pic/000212e4%20) Twitter exchange found by [rachelskywalker](http://rachelskywalker.livejournal.com/) (grammar cleaned up by me):

>   
>  _@kyleDarrah: It's not that the ending was taken in the wrong direction, it's that it makes NO SENSE. Ashley was on the Normandy? She was with me.  
>  @MassEffect: Probably a good thing to be cautious of._   
> 

To me, this points that everyone is probably correct, and this was a big red flag that Things Were Not As They Seem there at the end.

\- Lastly, the so-called 'optimal ending'. The one you can only choose if you have an EMS>4K and can only _get_ if you choose to Destroy the Reapers. The one that results in 5-10 seconds of extra cinematic after the attention paid to the Normandy survivors exiting onto the alien world, and the following image:

[](http://pics.livejournal.com/tersa/pic/006qc5eh)  
(click to enbiggen)

and the gasping breath that has everyone has interpreted as being Shepard being alive.

I've been arguing in comments for the past few days that, to me, that didn't feel like an optimal ending. Shepard's alive. Big deal. So what.

 _BUT_ if they plan on having more content that will pick up or modify the aftermath of the decision, then this 'optimal ending' may be interepreted in a different way: a teaser, a reward, for what's to come.

\-----

So Shepard makes a choice. Or, really, A Choice (tm). The big one. And if Bioware isn't lying to us--if our choices matter--here's some theories as to what might happen:

  1. Control - The Reapers don't win, per se, but from now on, Shepard is the one pulling their strings. 
  2. Synthesis - The Reapers don't win, but Shepard has made a choice that it is better to preserve everyone and everything in a new form that will prevent conflict going forward 
  3. Destroy - The Reapers don't win. An organic has shown that it has the fortitude of will to resist the influence of the Reapers and that the advanced races have finally evolved enough to be able to dictate their own destiny without everything devolving into the chaos the Reapers/Catalyst-child have been trying to prevent



At the risk of pissing people off, I think #3 is the choice Shepard _should_ be making. It's the one choice that has been hinted at that has Shepard 'live', and therefore the one that fits the part of the definition of 'catalyst' _"without itself being affected"_. In choosing #1 and #2, Shepard is swayed off the original path of destroying the Reapers, a path that Shepard had, to this point, been following unswervingly since Eden Prime. (ETA2): They are also the two endings that results in Shepard being subsumed by the solution--literally dissolving, by the visuals, into the light, which again is counter to the concept of a catalyst, which does not change its form or state during a chemical reaction. It's interesting to recall that in the Destroy option, as Shepard, who has been hunched over in pain for most of the last twenty minutes of the game, begins to fire at the device, straightens significantly, gaining confidence in both posture and stride as s/he approaches it, as if shaking off the malaise that had been crippling him/her from the moment s/he was hit with Harbinger's laser beam on Earth. Whether these are supposed to be another visual clue into the decision, I'm uncertain, but it's interesting to note within the scope of this analysis. (ETA:) Clarification. I am not trying to say that the Destroy choice will save the geth or EDI. The Catalyst-child could be telling the truth that they are at risk if this option is taken. I don't think there is a rainbows and unicorn happy ending, no matter which choice is taken. I think no matter which option is chosen, there's going to be a Price to pay.

But what I am _not_ saying is that Destroy is the 'right' choice, because any choice made without knowledge of the consequences must be valid to each individual Shepard.

And the way they've presented it, without us having access to the "rest of the story", we, like Shepard, are having to make our decision without such foreknowledge.

(Wow, thought: that's one way to prevent the end from leaking.)

I'm still uncertain why, up to EMS=2800, there are only two choices available: control or destroy, and why Synthesis seems to be given special status above those two, especially when Destroy (available at any EMS) is given the special brass ring possibility ending of 'Shepard survives'.

> (ETA): A friend of mine sent the following in response to this expressed uncertainty--a theory that I immediately liked, so I wanted to share it with her permission:

>   
>  _"I honestly think [Synthesis is] the "we respect you as a worthy adversary, so we're willing to bargain" choice. Shepard gets her way (end of Reapers as they currently exist) and Reapers get their way (continued existence through an evolutionary fusion trick). Until that point, Shepard is still blowing their minds at getting there at all. But: Know Your Enemy - if you know this is a person who has gone through exhaustive lengths to bring the entire galaxy against you [which an EMS >2800 represents], they're not someone to be underestimated." -- [arysani@LJ](http://arysani.livejournal.com/)_   
> 

I'm also uncertain as to how keeping or destroying the Collector base would influence these outcomes.

I'm also uncertain if this is a dream/vision/bad acid trip, or where it would start if it was. I am really inclined to believe, given the look of the rubble Shepard is buried in if s/he "lives" that it's on Earth, and not the Citadel--not the least of which is that the Citadel is shown to be blowing up/breaking apart in the Destroy ending, and I can't imagine that there would be anything like gravity or atmo on it afterwards--but whether that's because s/he never left it or s/he miraculously wound up there through the Power of the Almighty Catalyst-child and the transporter beam after making his/her decision, I can't decide.

But my gut says they're not actually done.

(ETA3: Just stumbled on two sets of tweets from Chris Priestley I thought may be relevant to this conversation:

>   
> [@BioEvilChris](https://twitter.com/#!/BioEvilChris/status/179967731070799872): "There are two types of people in this world. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data"  
>  (Ed. note: implication being ...and those that can't.)

> @MichaKornuik: "There are also people selling incomplete data telling us it's complete. Such people are bastards, aren't they?"  
> [@BioEvilChris](https://twitter.com/#!/BioEvilChris/status/179973280311156737): "Good thing I don't know anyone like that."


	13. Epilogue

If you've read this far, here *cookie*. Seriously. When I set out to write this, I hadn't quite realized it was going to be 7000+ words and take me so flipping long.

AGAIN: Please do not attack me for setting out to prove that Bioware's likely been planning on DLC to resolve this even before the release. I am not defending their actions--quite the opposite. I think doing so was a poor decision on their part and the way they're handling the fan reactions is exacerbating deteriorating relations between Bioware and their fanbase (for more on this, see the Forbes article ["Why Fan Service is Good Business"](http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/03/13/why-fan-service-is-good-business/%20)). As someone who now does tech support/customer advocacy in the software industry, I am intimately familiar with why something like this backfires and how to do damage control. I'm not seeing either of that demonstrated at the moment.

My only purpose with this essay was to try to make some sense of the endings in the context of the narrative threads introduced throughout the entire series, as a _whole_ story, using elements I don't believe have been touched on in previous posts. That I wind up giving possible credence to what Bioware is saying is simply a consequence of analyzing the whole work and coming to the conclusion that the writers seem like they did have a plan, and that things may not be done yet.

Comments welcome here, although preferred at the [livejournal comment](http://masseffect.livejournal.com/1351010.html?thread=37466466#t37466466).

\----- 

(ETA5): Turns out that all my finally crafted theories may be for naught. According to excerpts from [Mass Effect 3: Final Hours](http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/9999272/1) done by Geoff Keighley (available on iPad and coming soon for Windows and Mac as of ths writing), the ending presented in ME3 has been what they've planned for a while.

Which isn't to say they won't change their mind in the face of the public outcry of dissatisfaction, but there you go: more information.


End file.
